What You Never Said
by KaleidoscopeKitten
Summary: Three weeks after her encounter with the Blue Spirit, Katara finds herself smitten with the rogue, who's the exact opposite of Zuko. Or is he? Zutara


**Author's note:** This one isn't going to be long. Three chapters is all. Please let me know what you think! ;)

-

-

**Disclaimer:** I own none of the characters about whom I write. I do own the moonlit beach, though...Muaha!

-

-

**Chapter 1:**

**-**

_We hate some persons_

_because we do not know them;_

_and will not know them_

_because we hate them._

_Charles Caleb Colton_

_-_

_-_

_-_

The reason she hadn't noticed him until now was because she wasn't really paying attention. She didn't hear the masterfully soft footsteps approaching, indecipherable above the natural chatter of the beach. She didn't notice the quiet hissing of the thin ropes he held up and smoothed out in the darkness. And she wasn't aware of his presence until the warm breath passed over her face, stirring the fine hairs at her temple.

Her eyes flew open as she bolted upright. Or rather, tried to. With horrifying realization, she became suddely aware of how constricted her movements were. Her legs were secured together, bound at the ankles expertly. Something pinned her wrists to the ground above her head, and a weight on her abdomen prevented her from rolling over. Try as she might, she could do very little to remedy her state of entrapment.

"Hold still. Struggling will get you no where."

_That voice!_

She fell still instantly, eyes widening with fear. Too shocked to speak, she looked up at the dark form above her. She could make out very little in the darkness. A faint outline of the figure loomed over her, head and shoulders the only things visibly prominent. The face was indiscernable, made a blank and featurless mask by the night. But she knew who it was. That voice was easily recognizable, for it had taunted her for months, lurking around every wrong turn, rebounding off of every bad decision.

She felt herself tremble as he leaned down closer, face almost touching her own. She told herself it was merely the chill of the faint breeze, not any form of terror this boy induced. His breath once again tickled her forehead and she turned her face away in disgust.

He noticed this and paused in his attempt at binding her wrists together. He stared down at her for a few moments, watching her eyes glowering beautifully at the sand rifts to her side, lips in a scowling pout.There was no arguing how lovely she was, lying there, dark tresses fanning out around her shoulders. She must have undone her braid for more comfortable slumber. Or perhaps it had been to brush out any tangles created by ocean water. He could smell the sea on her skin.

Snapping out of it, he finished knotting the rope. She refused to look at him.

"What's the matter? Don't like me?" he taunted.

It was childish, he knew, but he said it anyway.

To his surprise she actually turned her face to look up at him. Any closer and their lips would have touched. He wondered vaguely what it would have been like. _To kiss her, that is._ He should have been getting off her now and going to retrieve the Avatar. He wanted to, without a doubt. She was a peasant, after all. And a waterbender. Double _no no_ for a prince of the fire nation.

_Yet..._

Katara fixed the firebender with the most insufferable stare she could muster. _What was he doing?_ She could tell he had finished immobilzing her arms, yet he held them in place as though she could still put up a struggle. He was just staring at her, not moving. _He was so disturbingly close!_ And he wasn't exactly light, either. The pressure of him sitting on her stomach was beginning to make her woozy.

"Are you going to get off or not!"

She screamed, knowing that her mouth was close enough to his ear to make it really painful. _Good..._she thought maliciously as he jerked his head back instantaneously. He released his grip on her hands at last to bring them up to the sides of his head in pain. His eyes fixed dangerously upon her, slitted amber glinting in the night, boring into her.

"Sorry. Did that hurt?" She returned the death glare.

She knew she was quite literally toying with fire, but was presently too furious to proceed with caution.

"Get off!" She wrenched her torso from beneath him in fury. It had somewhat less than desirable effects.

Her sudden movement disrupted his position, causing him to lose balance. Arms preoccupied from covering his ears, he fell forward, landing unceremoniously on the seething waterbender. Their foreheads knocked roughly, echoing in the stillness.

"Owww..."

Katara could feel her eyes watering, a painful lump surely forming right between her eyes. Everything was wavering and she could almost make out the little stars waltzing past her eyes in the darkness. The wind was blowing again, icy against her face. It made her forehead sting worse.

"You are undeniably the most vile girl I've ever met..."

The dizzy voice came from her right, reminding the waterbender of what had just taken place. She flushed as she realized the warmth that was shielding her from the wind was indeed the body of the hot-tempered boy who had collapsed on her.

"You..."she began angrily.

But she shut up at the look which was issued in her direction as the firebender hoisted himself to his elbows. He had one hand clamped over his forehead and looked ready to kill.

All at once the vehemence left her, and she felt fear once again clawing up her throat. _What had she just done?_ She was completely helpless at the moment, bending the nearby water was an impossible task without her arms being free. She was entirely at the mercy of her most dangerous, ruthless enemy. And she had just succeeded in thouroughly ticking him off. _Was she always this stupid?_

"You think you can treat me that way, and get away with it?" His voice was low and dangerous, brooding no chance of reasoning with him.

She gulped.

"Such disrespect demands punishment..."

He was propped up on both elbows now, watching her expression intently. The armor he wore was more heavy than she had imagined; his weight was nearly crushing her, constricting her breathing somewhat. He noticed her distress and smirked.

"The question remains, however: what shall I do?"

Perhaps it was the snide way he said it, or merely the fact that he was still on top of her, that made her panic at those words.

She jerked madly as a new, raw wave of fear consumed her.

"Nooo!" She shrieked. Her eyes began streaming as she realized just how dangerous the situation had become.

"What are you...?"

He sat up all the way, eyeing her in wonder. _What was she so freaked out about?_ He was only kidding. _Well, sort of._ She had pissed him off, no doubt about that. But it wasn't like he'd actually do anything to her. She was already bound and helpless. More or less. There was no honor in roughing up a prisoner. Especially a girl.

He looked down at her, slightly shaken at how very frightened she was. _Did she really think him that much of a monster? Did he really warrant that much fright from her?_

"I won't...I w...won't let y..you," she choked. Her voice was so meek.

_What was she...?_

His eyes widened as he suddenly realized what she was saying. He recoiled so fast he almost tripped as he stood.

_She thought he was going to...going to..._

He stood there for a minute, mouth gaping as he looked at her. She kept her eyes on him, sitting up with effort. She began scooting away, still trembling.

_Why couldn't he speak?_ His tongue lolled uselessly around in his mouth.

Skkkkshh. Skkksshhh. She kept scooting backwards. The look on her face was plain. Get away from here. Get away from _him_! She glanced over her shoulder briefly to check where she was going. She was leaving an indented zigzag trail in the sand.

"Wait."

She halted immediately, loking back at him. He could see her shuddering as he approached and felt the bile rise up in the back of his throat. _She really did think he was a monster! No wonder she hated him so much..._

"I'm...," He reached out a hand to her. "I'm not going to hurt you."

She winced as he touched her shoulder.

Her eyes were so vivid. Her expression was caught somewhere between accusation and disbelief.

"Katara."

_That's what the Avatar had called her, right?_

He knelt in front of her, keeping his movements deliberately slow and unthreatening. He placed his other hand on her remaining shoulder. She dropped her sapphire gaze to rest on his hand for a moment. When she looked back up at him her trembling stopped. But she still looked unsure of herself. _Thinking what she had, he couldn't really blame her_. He released her shoulders and looked deep into her eyes. He raised his arms, palms up in a peaceful gesture.

"I would't do such a thing. Katara. I give you my word. I will not touch you again, unless your permission is given."

Katara watched Zuko closely, looking for any sign of insincerity. To her surprise there was none. His voice held no mocking tone, something alien in its own right. The way he was currently acting was a mystery all its own.

Actually, he looked deeply disturbed.

The waterbender let out a sigh of relief. _She was safe_. As much of a jerk as he was, the firebender was true to his word.

Sensing her ease, he let his arms drop and rocked back to sit on the sand. With immense surprise, she saw his shoulders sag in relief. He let out a long breath then looked out over the sea.

For the first time Katara felt her somewhat questionable animosity for the firebender become overriden with curiosity. She had always assumed he was just a cold, unfeeling, spoiled boy. Granted, that's how he acted all the time. Except now. This was a brand new, whole different side of him she was seeing. A side she had really believed didn't exist. _Or maybe...hoped didn't exist._

It was so much easier to fight someone you despised. To assume that the arrogant firebender who was constantly harassing her and her friends was, well..._evil. Corrupt. Wicked._

_If he wasn't these things, then why did he hunt down Aang? Why did he treat the Avatar as though he was not even human, but some sort of trophy? There just couldn't be a good reason for it. There was no way how he acted could be...justifyable._

_Could there?_

Katara fet her eyes drawn to him now. He was still looking off to the side,a distant expression crossing his face. For strictly observational purposes, she gave him a good once over. The thin crescent of a moon had poked its way through the obscurity of the clouds above them, illuminating the silent form beside her. She could see the side of his face, his left eye, and the scar the hovered over it. There was such a stark contrast between it and the paleness of the smooth skin around it.

She had never realized how incredably light his pallor was, almost to the extent of malnourishment. She found herself wondering vaguely if he took the time to eat at all during his hunt for Aang. _Wait, what was she thinking? Of course he did, or he'd be dead. Duh._

She shook her head. _Why did she care, anyways?_ This was Zuko she was thinking about. The one who had thoughtlessly crashed his ship into her village. The one who had taunted her with her mother's necklace. _The one who had tied her up..._

Katara suddenly remembered the ropes that bound her ankles and wrists. She made a face at the firebender. Yes, it was the very same boy who had done all of these things, who was now sitting not a few feet away from her. And it had been _him_, pinning her to the ground and making it difficult to breathe. It had been _his_ hot breath on her face, that she had woken up to.

Suddenly she remembered just how close he had been.

Despite herself, Katara felt her cheeks grow hot and turned her face away at once. _What was the matter with her?_ He was the enemy. And he was rude, besides. He had no reason to have sat on her like that. He hadn't even made an attempt at not squishing her. And his face had been too close for comfort! It was...uncooth. _Didn't he find it disgusting anyways? Being so close to a peasant?_

She looked over at the moonlit figure of the boy. He sat with his arms resting across his knees, back perfectly straight. The glittering sand was crusted on his boots, contrasting with the dark material. His eyes really were something else._ Eerie._

_But beautiful._

_Ugh! what am I thinking? He's a pompous, no good creep._

_Well, maybe not as much of a creep as I thought..._

_But still an arrogant jerk._

She hmphed in testimony to her thoughts.

Zuko heard the waterbender make a noise and looked at her. Catching his glance she turned her face away quickly. The firebender could have sworn he saw a touch of scarlet creeping up her cheekbones, but dismissed the thought quickly. _That was absurd!_ He knew she had been looking at him, but it couldn't have been more than a gaze of hatred.

_But what could he expect?_

_She'd never understand._

_Not only because she'd never bother to ask, but also because he'd never tell her anything._

He stood up, brushing the sand from his legs. _Not anything of importance, anyways..._

_Unless it could serve to piss her off in the process..._ He looked down at her with a grin. _It was only fair if he left her as unruffled as she did him._

"Well, I'm off to recover the Avatar. But I suppose you already gathered that, right?" He turned his back to her and began walking away. His footsteps were once again muffled by the grainy ground. He did a half wave over his shoulder. "You're not too pathetic, for a peasant. I'm sure you'll free yourself eventually..."

He heard her growl in frustration and chuckled aloud. "It'll be too late of course."

And with that, he vanished into the night.

Katara made a rude getsure as best she could with her bound hands.

_Yep. She hated him._

Seething, she scoured the beach for something useful. A sharp shell or driftwood or something. It was about ten minutes before she finally spotted something remotely helpful. She scooted over to the gleaming candidate, a shattered piece of abalone shell. The rainbow that glittered across the inside, as eye-catching as it was, failed to lighten her mood.

Grasping the jagged shell shard with her fingers, she began the slow process of sawing away at her bonds.

Mumbling every curse she knew in conjunction with thoughts of a certain fire nation prince, she began to plot revenge befitting the snooty prick. He was nothing other than an idiotic boy who enjoyed toying with her. He was nothing to her but a nuisance.

And she did _not_ like him.

As a matter of fact, he was the complete opposite of what she liked. He was pig-headed and immature. Rude and arrogant. Not in the least bit modest. He completely lacked composure and grace.

_And gentleness._

The waterbender's face grew placid. She felt her anger diminish as her thoughts drifted away from the firebender, far away, and to someone else entirely. A soft look came to cloud her eyes, caused her jaw to unclench.

_It was the gentleness she liked most._

A small smile played across Katara's lips as she recalled a very cherished encounter.

It had been three weeks ago.

_Hadn't it?_

It could have been last night, for all its clarity. For all the vivid detail of it, for all the feelings she still felt.

She wished it was last night.

---------------------------------

Good? Bad? Worth continuing?


End file.
